Ah yeah though the site that I saw clearly had a picture of a Basenji representing the breed! Your link, they look nothing like Bs
To sit or not to sit?
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I have a new pup that is coming home next Friday at 11 weeks old. I've never had a puppy before and for another first for me (and some added challenge :D) I will also show her.
I have her signed up for a puppy obedience class (taught by a CPDT trainer) at Planet Dog starting March 4. The first class is a meeting with the trainer without the pup, so that gives me the chance to have her 12wk shot before she actually is in the class…her first class with other pups will be at 12.5 wks. As well, Planet Dog has free puppy romp r room (run by the same trainers that do the obedience & manners classes) on both Saturday and Sunday mornings that she'll be joining in.
I have a couple of questions. First off, I'm wondering about training her to sit. For you show people, do you train a pup to sit? How do they differentiate that you don't want them to sit while being shown and holding out bait?
Are there other things that that I should watch out for regarding my 1 on 1 training with her that could potentially cause problems later on in the show ring.
These questions are potentially dumb, but hey, I've never done this before and I'm excited and nervous at the same time.
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I found teaching my basenji how to seat quite easy (he got it like in 3 days)
What I did was, I'd grab a treat, show it to him and then of course say sit. Now he won't sit, so what you will do is have the threat up above his nose and kinda move it back a little, he will automatically sit then just give him the treat and lots of praise, thing's like good boy and of course sit so he understands why he got the treat and what he needs to do in the future to get more.
Be patient though, you shouldn't expect so much out of such a young puppy as far as commands goes. I hope this helped, but I'm sure you'll get a lot more input here.
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I make Kananga sit every time before I set his food down. After a couple days he was automatically sitting before I even asked him to. It's something to take into consideration. I feel making him sit before he gets his food helps establish good behavior in general.
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I took my pups to puppy socialisation classes where they learned to sit amongst other things, as a show dog you can also teach it stand on command (if your lucky they might even do it) mine also know turn for when we are moving them in the ring and steady when they are getting carried away and moving too fast.
I only used to do short sessions with mine as they get bored and switch off after a while.
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You should tell the trainer that the pup will be shown and that you would like to work on both sit and stand. Using the voice commands for sit and stand they can learn the difference. Also, because you typically show a B in a small linked choke chain, different that what you use for obedience or just making sure you use two different collars many times is enough for the pup to know the difference. Kobey's Mom does obedience, but she at first work a lot on the stand command (and the instructors knew that he was to be shown) and when I would work with him, I used the show collar, Ann uses a different collar for obedience. Of course we have it a bit easier, cause Kobey knows that I take him in the show ring and "stand" is the course of action… but it is not that difficult to teach the difference... just time and practice. Only reward the correct response. If you ask him to stand and he sits, get him up (is they are in front of me I just back up a little pull a bit to get him to get up and start to walk towards me, repeat the stand command and treat....
One thing that I do notice about dogs that know both sit and stand commands, Kobey will sit in the ring much more then the other show dogs when we are not working (like when the judge is looking at the other dogs for exam on the table)... but since this is a bit of down time, I don't worry about it.... -
Indy is a show dog and has also been through two obedience classes and extensive one on one with DH and I. Sit was his first command and so so useful. Don't worry about the sit, because there is also another command we have 'stand'. His handler has no problems in the ring. If he starts to sit she uses the stand command and he is back on track.
One thing to watch out for is the heel command. A lot of instructors will teach the heel command with the dog looking at you, you want to teach your dog to heel while looking straight ahead. This will require a compromise for you though. When Indy is heeling I have to give him verbal commands about what is going on. "Left" "Right" "Stop" etc. He is doing exactly what we want by looking straight ahead so I need to help him out. But again no biggie.
Thats all I have congrats on the pup
EDIT: We also have distinct collars for him.
(1) Walking on the spikey collar is only for Turin and I when we expect strict obedience (he hurt his traeakia when we were just using his collar)
(2) Harness is for use when we are hiling and he is allowed to snif and does not have to be so obedient
(3) Show choker is only for showing and practice showing.It may sound silly but he gets it. We put the show choker on him and he is a different dog, he stands tall and proud and acts like a little pharo. With the spikey collar he is immediately obedient with commands. When he has the harnesson he is running, sniffing, excited, etc. But the change is instantaneous.
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So nice that you have a puppy!! Don't forget to post some pics..!!
About "sit": I learned Tillo to sit, but at the training they know we also show. So with obedience Tillo doesn't have to sit without me telling him to sit when I stand still. I learned Tillo the command 'stand', so he knows I can tell him more things when I stop walking: sit, stand, down etc.. This makes him wait for the command (most of the time :D).
Tillo also has to sit before we leave the house, eat, cross the street etc, but for example when he sits without my command I ask him to stand.. (can you still follow me.. :rolleyes:)I do think it is important to learn the pup to 'stand' when you go to puppy training. Most of the trainings are very focused on the 'sit' and when you wait to long it can be harder to make them stand. When they see you have a treat, they will sit automatically..
You can also learn 'sit' on one leash and stand on another (show) leash. This is not my choice, because I like to let Tillo sit in the ring when it's not his turn.. otherwise he becomes very impatient…
One other thing with training is you learn the pup to look at you when walking on leash. In the ring it is nice to have a dog that looks strait ahead. I do change leads for this. One leash is look up, show leash is don't look up.. (I don't look at him either)
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OMG, thank you all so much for the great information! I'm glad I asked!
Thanks especially Tanza, rnasto & Janneke for the detailed responses. Definitely sounds like "stand" is the key! I'll let the trainer know that she will be shown and I'd like to work on "stand" as well.
And Janneke…the part about sitting without the command completely makes sense...and actually is something I'll work on with Ruby and Brando as well. If they sit before I ask, I change it up and ask for something else...but never thought of stand. The look up/not look up part sounds challenging to me :D...and definitely something I hadn't considered.
I think it will all be a challenge but I'm quite excited about it. I'm glad I asked!
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I also teach all my dogs sit. Just like all the others who show said, the key is to put both sit and stand on cue. I use a different collar in the show ring then in their obedience and agility classes.
I will pass on this little tidbit, dogs will learn a "default" position. This is usually the position that they are rewarded for most, so when they are unsure what you want them to do they will revert to this default position. If you work sit, make sure you also work on stand so that you are rewarding both positions just about equally and don't forget down that is often the most difficult position command for sighthounds.
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I will pass on this little tidbit, dogs will learn a "default" position. This is usually the position that they are rewarded for most, so when they are unsure what you want them to do they will revert to this default position. If you work sit, make sure you also work on stand so that you are rewarding both positions just about equally and don't forget down that is often the most difficult position command for sighthounds.
Thanks Lisa! Great info about the default…I'll be sure to work on sit & stand equally. I'm so glad I asked about this...there is way more to consider than I had even been thinking about.
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I also teach all my dogs sit. Just like all the others who show said, the key is to put both sit and stand on cue. I use a different collar in the show ring then in their obedience and agility classes.
I will pass on this little tidbit, dogs will learn a "default" position. This is usually the position that they are rewarded for most, so when they are unsure what you want them to do they will revert to this default position. If you work sit, make sure you also work on stand so that you are rewarding both positions just about equally and don't forget down that is often the most difficult position command for sighthounds.
I absolutely agree. I prefer to have 'sit' as the default position, but when we are in the height of showing a dog, we often reward 'stand' more often, so we accept that as default.
If I am working one behavior and I get the other one (ex. in the ring, I say stand, and get a sit) I just say 'try again'…'stand'...that usually immediately cues the dog that I want the OTHER one.
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Thanks Andrea…I'm going to keep the "try again" in mind when I get going on all this.
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These questions are potentially dumb, but hey, I've never done this before and I'm excited and nervous at the same time.
And not dumb questions, thanks for asking them. I found the answers extremely helpful too as I am about to embark on the same "first-time showing" journey. And we're even starting on the same week. I get my pup the day after you do at 10.5 weeks. :D:D
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Just remember to "have fun"…. this is the most important thing that you can do.... and when you go to your first show...yes you will be nervous... but remember to have fun and have fun with your pup
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Thanks Nemo…I'm glad the answers helped you as well. I've been following your other thread and knew your girl was coming home close to mine. Didn't realize we were a day apart.
I'm sure we'll have plenty to compare notes on and that our questions will be helping each other out.
For me, I'm just glad mine didn't come home this weekend as we got 1.5 feet of snow and are without power and water (I'm in maine and 140,000 are without power til at least Wednesday. Thankfully we have a woodstove.
Pat...yes, my first priority is for my little girl to have fun and to have fun myself. I'm sure I'll be asking plenty of other new'b questions as I get going. I really appreciate all the advice. I've been doing training with ruby and Brando today and working on stand. It has been pretty funny.
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Our dog refuses to sit on our tile floor. He has to sit on the rug (floor too cold for his tushy)
